Our products

Product category: Parts made by injection moulding

Composites and Polyurethane Technology

DESIGN, PRODUCTION, TESTING: These three keywords sum up the work of the composites and polyurethane technology department at IKV. Composites like fibre reinforced plastics (FRP) have already proven their potential as high performance materials in countless applications.

The anisotropic material properties of the fibre/matrix combination represent both the potential and limits of this lightweight construction material. Only with precise knowledge of the complex material behaviour and a part design suitably tailored to the material is it possible to produce particularly lightweight structures in FRP to withstand the highest loads and meet the most stringent of specifications.

Focus of research activities

Apart from questions of part design and material data acquisition, the research work conducted in the composites department also focuses on process configuration and control for FRP production.

FROM IDEA TO PRODUCT

The activities of the Injection Moulding department cover the entire process chain from the original idea to the final product. In addition to thermoplastics and thermoplastic elastomers, the department also covers thermosets, elastomers and polyurethanes.

IKV has a number of modern injection moulding machines with clamping forces of between 60 and 200 t. It also has a wide range of moulds, including simple geometries for analytical testing, standard specimen geometries and complex practical geometries. It also has a large selection of modern CAD/CAM/CAE tools for mould design and process simulation.

Centre for Analysis and Testing of Plastics (KAP)

Analysing. Testing. Consulting.

Describing material properties is essential for the design of products and manufacturing processes, for quality assurance, for the testing of specifications or for damage analysis. On a laboratory area of more than 700 m2, our qualified engineers, scientists and technicians work with the appropriate testing and analysing equipment to respond to your inquiries relating to the determination of specific material values, the testing of components and troubleshooting.We offer our industrial and research partners individual solutions to their problems, and have the following methods at our disposal to achieve this:

About us

Company details

The Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV) in Industry and the Skilled Crafts at RWTH Aachen University is one of the biggest institutes engaged in research on plastics processing. The Institute has more than 300 employees working on the problems encountered during the processing of the many different types of plastics.

The IKV's excellent contacts with industry, together with its outstanding facilities, ensure that students benefit from a comprehensive, practically-oriented course of study. Plastics engineering graduates from IKV are thus sought-after experts in industry. Around 50 percent of German plastics engineers with a university degree have received their education at IKV.

IKV is structure into the four specialist departments of Injection Moulding, Extrusion and Rubber Technology, Part Design and Materials Technology, and Composites/PU Technology. The Institute also takes in the Centre for Analysis and Testing of Plastics, and the Training and Further Education department.

IKV is run by a non-profit Sponsors' Association, which currently has a membership of more than 230 plastics companies worldwide. The members provide a key stimulus for the work conducted at IKV and its research topics. They benefit at a particularly early stage from the research results and developments.

Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Hopmann is Head of the Institute and Managing Director of the Association of Sponsors. He also holds the Chair of Plastics Processing at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University.